18 October 2024 || 15:00 - 17:00 Almaty time (GMT+5), 12:00 - 14:00 CET
Zoom link to the webinar: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87375564600?pwd=Yagi5sE095am6iePFFOyXja2QVv8y7.1
Background
Plastic production has sharply increased over the last 70 years. It has grown from 2 million tons to 450 million tons since 1950. One to two million tons of plastic enters our oceans yearly, affecting wildlife and ecosystems.
Not only we are polluting the environment with long-lasting toxic waste, but we are also wasting such essential resource as food. The world loses an astounding quantity of food every year – a third of all food for human consumption in the world is lost or wasted.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has identified plastic pollution and food waste as critical environmental challenges that require urgent attention. To tackle pollution, UNEP prioritizes initiatives aimed at reducing plastic production and consumption, promoting the circular economy, and enhancing waste management systems, including with a focus on food waste prevention and management. By promoting sustainable practices in food production and consumption, UNEP aims to raise awareness, implement efficient resource management strategies, and encourage the adoption of best practices to minimize food waste across all sectors. Together, these efforts reflect UNEP's commitment to fostering a healthier planet through sustainable development and responsible resource use.
In a 2024 survey, plastic and food waste prevention and management were identified as the most pressing issues by universities of Central Asia and Caucasus, necessitating urgent shift in behavioral pattern. Behavioral science shows that a simple “nudge” towards everyday greener decisions is a powerful spur to environmental action for students and other campus community members to address these challenges. Techniques such as gentle persuasion, changing the framing of choices, resetting default options or harnessing social influence can all lead towards sustainable conduct and an eco-friendly campus.
The Webinar is a part of activities of UNEP and Kazakh-German University, targeting to support Sustainable Lifestyles on campus and beyond in the countries of Central Asia and Caucasus to reduce the use of natural resources through a "net zero living" behavior pattern with a focus on plastic and food waste management.
Objective
The Webinar targets to discuss the need and showcase the existing practices of green nudges in plastic and food waste prevention and management applicable on campus in universities of Central Asia and Caucasus for possible scaling up and replication.
Participants
Universities, upper/graduate students, sustainable development experts and practitioners, private sector, civil society representatives from the regions of South Caucasus and Central Asia as well as international organizations.
The event will be held online with simultaneous Russian-English translation and provided recording.
